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Story time. I had a nice little game going with Venice. Trade was good, Italy was mostly subdued and very well developed. I had had a lot of trouble with Austria, but if I played smart and only went to war with full manpower while they were occupied elsewhere I could handle them while I took whatever other territory I wanted, but suddenly, Austria had control of the Netherlands and things started getting real scary.

I decided that it was better to act sooner rather than later and I found a willing ally in the BBB. Before I was ready to go to war, it declared the French conquest of Savoie on Savoy, and since Austria was in the coalition against them we were now at war without me having any opportunity to take territory. Tough luck, huh?

Now, if the story had ended here I would have been happy. But nope. The French won the war, which meant that we now shared a border, with the very attractive province of Lombardia on my side of it. A year or two passed, and suddenly, the frogs and I were no longer friends, and our alliance was cancelled despite me doing everything right.

At this point, I had finished my conquest of Italy, and I had one of the strongest armies in the game, enough to do pretty much anything besides fight the BBB or win a land war in Turkey or Russia. I thought that I was strong enough that the French might leave me alone if I kept relations high. At this point, an unlikely player entered the scene.

Sardinia, outraged by my fabrication of claims, my incessant conquests in Italy, of which it was the only remaining witness, and spurred by alliances with France and Austria, declared a punitive war. It quickly became obvious that I had no hope of winning this war, and I had to make the best of what I had. Not wanting to strengthen my enemies, I offered Sardinia the release of a few Italian minors and a doge's ransom in gold.

France and I were enemies at this point, and I knew I had to become stronger to resist them. I was slowly reabsorbing the minors I had released earlier, but having to fight Austria to gain control of the HRE members between them was more trouble than it was worth at that point. Even with my large income, squeezing more manpower out of Italy with buildings was a slow process, and I knew that I had to expand to have any hope of beating the French. West was out of the question, East would bring my main territory in contact with the Ottomans and North would be into land wars where my massive fleet would be useless.

My only option was going South across the Med, which happily coincided with my long-term goal of creating a large flow of trade from India. With my troops firmly embedded in a moderately large war in the ME, the frogs struck. The BBB was 10 years ahead in military tech, with twice as much manpower and far more armies than I had. I could not win, and desperate not to strengthen France further I instead released Naples to gain peace. I was weakened, France still wanted my territory, and Austria was in a position to beat me again.

I knew my only hope was to expand further in Egypt. My income and my naval force limits were much reduced, and Med and Red Sea coastline would do a lot to help that. However, my plans did not come to fruition before I was attacked by the Ottomans backed by a coalition of North African states. At this point, I had three aggressive neighbors who could all field stronger armies than I and march them directly into Italy, and my only "ally" in Castille had no interest in helping me. I had to accept that the game was done, and continuing it would only result in me being progressively weakened and marginalized by my stronger neighbors, boxed in as I was.

If you got this far, all I can offer to take away from this, my first ironman game is also the

I guess today you learnt not to expand too aggressively as a merchant republic? I'm playing as The Hansa myself and I'm taking this so very slowly and being very diplomatic. The only place I can be aggressive is with my North American colonization.

The big problem with being a successful merchant republic is that the more income and tech you get the more you upgrade your provinces. Which in turn makes your European provinces have crazy tax and production income, which makes the AI crave them more and more.

Failure is fun, but total no-way-out-failure is less fun. Still had a good game.

The problem was not my aggressive expansion, the problem was my neighbors' greed. I took it easy most of the game, most of the territory I took in the early game was through vassalization. I tried to keep Austria as an ally, but the AI chose me as a rival once I got a little bigger. I only expanded aggressively (i.e. full annexation) on a few occasions, chiefly in Italy when the only nations to anger were minors. (Oh Sardinia, I underestimated you) I imagine The Hansa is a little safer in that regard, seeing as there are fewer natural enemies in the mid-game.

Yes! I had almost half of my income from tax and production, and Lombardia was too juicy for France to resist.

If you conquer a province that doesn't "belong" to you (I'm a little unsure of the underlying mechanics), the emperor can go to war with you to return it to who owns it.

If you convert to protestantism and the emperor is catholic he can attack you to force you back to catholicism.

More generally within the HRE you tend to get a lot of complicated alliances and vassals so you need to be careful who you attack. Especially if you aim to become the emperor yourself you need to be very diplomatic to secure the electoral votes.

I think I see your problem right there. Venice and Austria are pretty natural rivals. I've found that even attempting to change that is kind of a waste of time. Not that diverting those resources to other countries would have for sure made a difference, but you never know. It might have.

They are. I never intended it to be permanent - more of a "join the HRE in war and the minors in Northern Italy are ripe for picking" kinda deal. It didn't last for long, and I wasn't hurting for diplomats. I don't know whether it would have made a difference - EU is like history in that minor details can change a whole lot.

Playing Venice myself and am fascinated by how closely my struggles have mirrored those of the historical Republic. My early naval superiority protects me from outright destruction, but every decade sees the Ottoman navy get bigger as they crush their enemies on both fronts and European powers fail to cooperate due to infighting and mutual distrust.

Like you I've given up on trying to fight through France or Spain and want to get access to the Indies through Egypt, but the Mamluks are falling apart and the Turks are moving in with disturbing alacrity. I can see my Mediterranean trade beginning to shrink as my trade fleet gets outclasses by Ottoman numbers, and the Atlantic is just too far away for a nation whose strategic interests are too heavily tied into the Eastern Mediterranean.

I think I'm heading for oblivion just like the real Venetian republic, depleted from constant losing wars against the Turks and finally just snapped up by Austria after 1000 years of independence. Makes me sad.

As for Lucky Nations it makes a huge difference. Just take a look at the ruler stats for France or Turkey, they usually have at least one 6 and normally >3 on the others easily. In addition, if you're prosecuting a seige against a Lucky Nation, take a look at their defensiveness, it takes a flat 25% bonus. Considering that at 100 Prestige the bonus is only 10% that's pretty huge.

I think I'm heading for oblivion just like the real Venetian republic, depleted from constant losing wars against the Turks and finally just snapped up by Austria after 1000 years of independence. Makes me sad.

I saw the signs and realized that I'd only get weaker as time passed, and that's why I saw no point in continuing the game. It's not fun if there is no future in it.

I seem to remember Lucky Nations as being fairly inconsequential from EU3, I guess that's why I didn't pay it much heed. I did notice the French ruler stats, a lot of the time they had a 6/6/6 shudder. I guess that explains why they were so far ahead in military tech. Frankly, the ruler system currently in place for republics is a mess. Playing Venice, you need the diplomatic points so badly that choosing an admin ruler is rare and a military ruler is rarer, and it just seems strange that there is no variation in stats.

Yeah and things get complicated once you struggle your way to Noble Republic. What do you pick? Naval Traditions seems nice, but your diplomatic power is probably already going into Trade Ideas. The admin group is a no-no because it's already a bottleneck. Military ideas have some appeal but you already know a straight up fight against the big blobs on your borders is unwinnable. In the end I went with Plutocratic. Staying peaceful for a while to save up military points might allow me to get a few idea into it and the +50% mercenaries might be my only chance to stave off a fullblown Austrian or Ottoman offensive.

I went full trade and plutocratic which gave me a lot of income, but it consumed so much diplo power that I was basically forced to have a diplo ruler all the time. The republican tradition mechanic is rather unforgiving as well.

YOU NEVER EVER EVER help the French in paradox games, in fact, you should do everything in your power to undermine them. Unless of course you are playing Hearts of Iron 3, then do everything you can to help them, unless of course you are Germany... and well, we know how that goes 99.9% of the time (if you play hoi)

I've been playing an Ironman as Scotland, and I think the main reason I survived the early phases of the game were because I allied myself with the French to keep England off my back. Things have been going pretty well, England is down to 5/6 provinces, Wales has 2, and I have the rest of the Isles, but France has been pissing people off on the mainland and I am now at war with Spain, Portugal, Austria, and most of the minor powers in Italy.

I probably should have declined the call to arms, but at the time Spain was the only major power involved, with Austria and Portugal joining after I did. I lost the majority of my army in a stupid incursion into Austria, my fleets are holed up in their ports hiding from the Spanish and Portuguese navies, and the English are starting to revolt.

I've got a small army in the Americas and I'm thinking of attacking the Spanish and Portuguese in their colonies, but I'm afraid if I do they will send an army over large enough to take all my overseas holdings.

There are many reasons to let the French help you, but there are a lot fewer reasons to go out of your way to help them. The alliance will probably be stronger without any opportunity to share a border, but I hope you don't have ambitions of holding land in Europe.

Personally, I'd ride the war out and defend my own territory, maybe convert some of those pesky Englishmen to the proper culture. You can check out how many transports the Spanish and Portuguese have to see how risky an attack on their colonies would be, but without claims there is no reason for you to try too hard. Don't worry about the French, they can handle themselves.

Right now I'm just concentrating on the British Isles and the Americas. I wish I had a foothold in France because they consume a ton of trade that I wish I could redirect north, but since my colonies in Manhatten and the Carribean are done I can route most of the new world's trade directly to London.

Once the war is over, build a fleet of light ships and use them to protect trade in Bordeaux. They'll boost your trade power massively. Going at least partially naval doubles your force limits which lets you have even more ships, which means more trade power and thus more money. The only drawback is that light ships are fairly worthless in combat.

If you got this far, all I can offer to take away from this, my first ironman game is also the

Part of your last sentence looks like it's disappeared.

I'm playing as Castile. Interestingly, I'm currently allied with Venice, and I've proven to be a worthless ally, completely uninterested in their struggles in northern Italy. Truth is I can't afford to send troops their as it would give France an opportunity to go to war with me over the provinces I've wrestled from them north of the Pyrenees.

I'm seeing the same trend as you, with France, Austria, and the Ottomans blobbing. My next game I will play with lucky nations off, and see what difference it makes.

In my game Austria inherited Burgundy, which combined with their holding the throne of the HRE made them the most powerful nation in Europe. The power went to their heads however, and they went on a conquering spree that quickly took them over the aggressiveness limit, and soon most of Europe were attacking the "dishonourable scum" that is Austria. The biggest winner in that war was France, and now I'm officially terrified.

If you got this far, all I can offer to take away from this, my first ironman game is also the TL;DR: Never help the French.

It's meant to read like this, maybe putting the last bit on a separate line was a bit funky.

I've actually just started a game as Castille, I'll grab what I can in the Western Med for trade power in Seville before taking the sword to the Americas. I perfectly understand why you wouldn't want to help, especially seeing as manpower is so hard to come by unless you are a blob, but at the point in my game where I allied with Castille there was absolutely no hope for anything but an united Europe to beat the French.

France is ridiculously strong, even more so than in EU3. Even when I had the largest income in the world I couldn't maintain an army as large as theirs even for one war. Austria would probably have blobbed if it hadn't been next to me. The Ottomans are strong, but if you are a naval power the Bosporus strait is a huge, glaring weakness for them. Shut it off, find out which side has the weakest armies, siege that and blockade the other and you'll be able to get a decent peace even if you are weaker than them in terms of armies.

Lucky nations might make a big difference, I don't know. I'm a bit of a save scummer, which forces me to play ironman to keep myself in check, and that means that only "historical" is allowed.

France is a monster, grab whatever territory you can elsewhere to stack up manpower, you'll need it.

Ah, as in the lesson is also the tl;dr, gotcha. I probably should have understood that. :-p

As Castile, I think the smartest thing to do is pre-emptive attacking France before they become too big. At the start of the game they will be in near constant wars with England until they've conquered all English holdings on the mainland, and those wars should be perfect opportunities for a good old dagger in the back.

Also you don't really have to bother with Aragon. There's an event that fires when you have monarchs with opposing genders that brings them into a personal union, giving you a valuable ally against France until you can diplo-annex them.

The way the power balance currently is in the game, I think the smartest thing for anyone who plans on having provinces in Europe to do is to pre-emptively attack France before it becomes too big :P

But yes, that's part of the plan. I'm frankly fed up of having powerful neighbors, I'm going to ensure peace before I go a-colonizing. I DOW'ed Granada early (who needs stability?), and I'm currently in a war against Portugal and Aragon for the Portugese throne. I'll cut Aragon off in the North to make sure the French don't get any ideas before that event fires. Later, I'll try to take the French coastline and then stake the wings of the English so I can hopefully get the Americas for myself.